1 Samuel 4:12-22

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Death of Eli

¹² A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with earth upon his head.^{(A) 13} When he arrived, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.^{(B) 14} When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man came quickly and told Eli. ¹⁵ Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.^{(C) 16} The man said to Eli, “I have just come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” He said, “How did it go, my son?”^{(D) 17} The messenger replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter^[a] among the troops; your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” ¹⁸ When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli^[b] fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.^(E)

¹⁹ Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. When she heard the news that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her labor pains overwhelmed her. ²⁰ As she was about to die, the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or give heed.^{(F) 21} She named the child Ichabod, meaning, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²² She said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”^(G)